Preview: Manchester City vs Salford City - prediction, team news, lineups

Manchester City will turn their attention away from the Premier League title race when they welcome League Two outfit Salford City to the Etihad Stadium for an FA Cup fourth-round tie on Saturday afternoon.

The two teams butted heads in the third round last season, with the Citizens easing to an emphatic 8-0 home victory over the Ammies.

Match preview

Man City will not go down without a fight in this season’s Premier League title battle with Arsenal and have underlined their top-spot credentials with important back-to-back wins over Liverpool and Fulham, beating the latter 3-0 at home on Wednesday night.

At the time of writing, Pep Guardiola’s side are breathing down Arsenal’s neck, sitting just three points behind the Gunners with 12 games remaining. City also have an EFL Cup final showdown against Mikel Arteta’s men to look forward to next month, and they are now eyeing up the possibility of reaching a fourth successive FA Cup final.

Seven-time winners of the FA Cup, Man City have reached at least the semi-final stage of the competition in eight of the last nine seasons under Guardiola, but they have only triumphed on two occasions in 2018-19 and 2022-23, while they have lost the last two finals to rivals Man United and Crystal Palace.

One of the standout results from last month’s third-round ties in the FA Cup was Man City’s 10-1 annihilation of League One side Exeter City at the Etihad. The seven-time champions hit double figures for the first time in nearly four decades and became the first team to net 10+ goals in the FA Cup since Tottenham thrashed Crewe 13-2 back in February 1960.

Man City will be confident of beating Salford and reaching the FA Cup fifth round for an 11th year running, as they have won their last 20 games in the competition against teams from outside the Premier League, scoring 82 goals in the process. At home, they have won their last 11 of these games by an impressive aggregate score of 59-5.

While Man City are unbeaten in their last six matches across all competitions (W5 D1), Salford have suffered only two defeats in their last 13 games over the last 10 weeks (W9 D2), though both losses have come in their last three league outings.

A narrow 1-0 home defeat to Chesterfield was followed by a 2-0 victory at Tranmere Rovers, but Karl Robinson’s side fell to a 1-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley in their most recent match a week last Thursday, seeing the League Two promotion hopefuls slip to sixth in the table and five points behind the top three. They do have at least one game in hand on every team above them, though.

This weekend, Salford will compete in the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history after beating Swindon 3-2 in a thrilling third-round tie almost three weeks ago. The last time a team from the fourth division or lower eliminated a side in the top three of the top tier was back in February 1971 when Colchester beat league leaders Leeds in the fifth round.

Pulling off an almighty upset against Man City could prove challenging for the Ammies, though, as they have lost all of their previous three competitive encounters with Premier League clubs by an aggregate score of 15-0, including the aforementioned 8-0 defeat at the Etihad last season (also losing 3-0 at Everton in 2020-21 and 4-0 at home to Burnley in 2023-24 in the EFL Cup).

Manchester City FA Cup form:

Manchester City form (all competitions):

Salford City FA Cup form:

Salford City form (all competitions):

Team News

Man City’s Croatian duo Josko Gvardiol (tibial fracture) and Mateo Kovacic (ankle/heel) remain sidelined with injuries, while it is unclear when Jeremy Doku (calf) or Savinho (unspecified) will return, but there is an expectation that both wingers could be available at some stage this month.

Erling Haaland was taken off a half time in Man City’s win over Fulham on Wednesday with “niggles” according to Guardiola, and the striker is unlikely to be risked in this fixture against Salford.

Omar Marmoush is therefore set to lead the line, while the likes of James Trafford, Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reinders, Nico Gonzalez, Max Alleyne and Rico Lewis - who scored twice in the third-round win over Exeter - are all strong contenders to return to the first XI.

John Stones could also make his first appearance since December 2 after recovering from injury, and the England international will likely battle with Abdukodir Khusanov for a start at centre-back.

As for Salford, Jay Bird and Tom Edwards both remain out long-term. Ade Oluwo, Michael Rose and Kadeem Harris are all making progress towards a return to full fitness, while Haji Mnoga and Brandon Cooper will be assessed ahead of kickoff.

Prince Ehibhatiomhan and Alfie Dorrington - recent loan signings from Southampton and Tottenham respectively - both made their debuts in the defeat at Accrington, the latter of whom started in the back three and could continue in the first XI alongside Oliver Turton and Luke Garbutt.

Ryan Graydon scored twice in the third-round win over Swindon and the January loan signing from Fleetwood will hope to continue up front alongside either Cole Stockton or joint-top scorer Daniel Udoh, who has seven goals to his name this term along with Kelly Nmai.

Former Liverpool and Sunderland forward Fabio Borini will hope to feature in some capacity. The 34-year-old Italian scored twice against Man City during his time with the Black Cats, including a first-half opener in a 3-1 EFL Cup final defeat at Wembley in 2014.

Manchester City possible starting lineup:

Trafford; Lewis, Khusanov, Alleyne, Ake; Gonzalez; McAidoo, Reijnders, Foden, Cherki; Marmoush

Salford City possible starting lineup:

Young; Turton, Dorrington, Garbutt; Butcher; Longelo, Grant, Woodburn, N'Mai; Graydon, Udoh

We say: Manchester City 4-0 Salford City

Just over a year on from conceding eight goals at the Etihad, Salford will hope to put up more of a fight and produce a stronger performance against Man City this time around, but it is difficult to back against the Citizens from securing their spot in the fifth round.

Even if Guardiola decides to make multiple changes to his lineup, City should still dominate this contest and they have more than enough quality to seal a comfortable victory on home soil.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.